Friday, May 3, 2019

My sister and I spent a long weekend at the Oregon Coast. We weren’t brave enough to camp in a tent (or maybe we’re just getting soft as we get older), so Thursday night we rolled into the KOA where we had booked a cabin. We still cooked outside on the Coleman stove, but we had a warm dry place to sleep:

Our first stop this morning was Battle Rock Wayside Park in Port Orford. In 1851 Captain William Tichenor dropped off nine men on the beach here. The local Qua-to-mah tribe wasn’t too happy about that, and according to the sign at the park for two weeks the men were “besieged on the island now called Battle Rock.” They were finally able to slip away in the night and escaped north to Umpqua City. Of course we know how this story ends: white men return in greater numbers and the native people are removed. You can read more here.

We also had a view of the harbor and the “dolly dock” there. The harbor is too shallow so hoists lift the boats in and out of the water every day:

It was a gorgeous day:

We could see Humbug Mountain in the distance. Those rocks in the ocean are part of the Redfish Rocks Marine Reserve.:

There is a nice viewing area here at Battle Rock:

And a visitor’s center (which wasn’t open):

Our next stop was Sisters Rocks State Park, an obscure and unsigned park right by Highway 101 south of Humbug Mountain State Park. We parked at this blocked-off road, but we later realized that the gravel parking area just south of here would have worked too:

We walked down the old road, which was in use when Frankport Beach (on the north side of this little peninsula area) was the site of a dock for loading tanoak bark onto ships:

Sisters Rocks was also the site of a rock quarry in the 50s and 60s. Now the road is gated:

View of Sisters Rocks:

We could see into the cave below us. It used to be an enclosed cave, but the roof collapsed so now it is open to the sky:

Looking north to Humbug Mountain:

The old road took us down to the base of the rocks and we went over to look into the sea cave:

We went around to the side of the rock to look into the cave entrance on the side:

We walked north a little bit along the beach. The water was so blue! The sky was so blue! Here’s Humbug Mountain again:

We followed raccoon tracks on the beach for a little ways:

Looking back at the rocks:

We hiked back up the old road to the car and drove north to Humbug Mountain to hike up it. It’s a workout! We climbed up through the forest:

When we reached the junction we went right on the West Trail:

There is one spot with a view to the north. That’s Port Orford Heads State Park to the left, and the town of Port Orford to the right:

And Highway 101 winding its way toward Port Orford:

When we got to the top we discovered a recently opened-up view. As near as I can tell, crews cleared some trees up here just this spring, considerably opening up the views to the south. You can see what the summit “view” looked like in this hiker’s photo from May 2016. Here is what it looked like during our visit:

Also, the crews crafted some nice wooden benches from the trees they cut:

Funny:

We could see some prominent peaks in the mountains to the east. The prominent one on the left with a patch of snow on it is Saddle Mountain (no, not THAT Saddle Mountain). The point sticking up to its right is Collier Butte. The forested hill in the foreground right of center is Colebrook Butte:

The summit was protected from the relentless wind and the sunshine felt great. After sitting there and enjoying the view for awhile we hiked back down through the trees:

We saw a few trillium:

Back in Port Orford we followed signs to the Wetland Interpretive Walkway, which was a little boardwalk in a wetland right in town:

To wrap up the day we stopped at Paradise Point, a beach access point just outside of Port Orford. These pretty pink flowers were blooming, although they are no doubt non-native:

To the north we could see Cape Blanco, which we would be visiting tomorrow:

To the south we could see Port Orford Heads:

We walked on the beach for a short distance, but it was just too crazy windy to be out there long:

Sunday, April 28, 2019

NOTE: Before you read on, if you are planning to visit God’s Thumb please use good judgement. People come here and make poor decisions and then need rescuing. As of this writing, the trail to the top of God’s Thumb is rough and steep and unofficial.

This was a GORGEOUS day at the coast so I decided to hike to God’s Thumb before driving home. I used the directions from this article, but unfortunately I turned too soon which resulted in me hiking a bunch of extra unnecessary mileage.

I parked at Road’s End State Park:

Then started walking up Sal-La-Sea Drive (where a red-winged blackbird greeted me):

The directions said to walk one mile “to a junction with NW Port Drive, and turn right. There may be signs pointing the way toward “The Knoll.”” I had not gone one mile, but there was a sign for The Knoll and a gate, and Google Maps said this was Port Dr. So I turned right.

That sign had a nice map on it that I photographed, glanced at, but should have looked at closer. I realized too late that I should have kept road-walking to the parking spot directly south of The Knoll, where the red marker is. Instead I turned off at the other marked parking spot, just below and to the right, and started hiking east.

The right-of-way was pretty wide with the path down the middle. It looked like it was intended to be a road at one point:

I popped out at the end of NE Devil’s Lake Blvd (labeled “cul de sac” on that map). Later I did some research online and discovered that this whole area I was hiking through was called The Villages at Cascade Head. Back in 2013 Lincoln City purchased it “from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) at the end of May for $2,500,000. The property is the subject of an environmentally-friendly development that was foreclosed upon. Its 363 acres are almost entirely wooded and provide habitat for a number of protected species of animals and plants.” (article)

At that time, the city planned “to keep some of the property as open space, develop some of it for affordable housing, and then sell off pieces of the property to private investors to develop in an environmentally-friendly fashion. In the meantime, the City will designate the property as an interim park.”

I found this presentation from 2017 that indicates that city would like to develop the area along Devil’s Lake Blvd, but based on the maps it doesn’t look like it would include The Knoll.

I crossed to the other side of the cul de sac, and picked up the trail heading east:

At some point it felt like I left behind what was once intended to be a road, and was now on a true forest trail:

However, maybe I was wrong because I passed the rusting remains of an old car just downhill from the trail. It was too far-gone to tell what it once was.

Also, it appeared that someone had recently (and probably illegally) driven their vehicle on this path, as I saw tread marks for quite a distance:

I was now making a big unnecessary loop over and around:

The Knoll was out of my way, an out-and-back side trip that would not be on the way to God’s Thumb, so I decided to skip that. I passed through a meadow:

I was now out of the parcel owned by the city and was hiking in the Siuslaw National Forest. I hiked through more trees, and emerged into another meadow:

And I could now FINALLY see the ocean:

Just a little further on I got my first view of God’s Thumb:

I hiked down to a saddle below it:

Then scrambled up to the top where I had a great view north to Cascade Head:

And a great view south:

After sitting there for awhile I made my way back down and headed down the path that would dump me out at Logan Road. I took one last look back at God’s Thumb before entering the trees:

Many parts of this section of the trail were horrifically muddy:

The path came out on a gravel road which I followed to Logan Road, passing through a gate. It now looked like a driveway, but were not any “no trespassing” signs:

To get back to Road’s End and my car I walked down to Logan until I reached this beach access point at NW 73rd:

And then I walked the rest of the way back on the beach:

Before getting off the beach at Road’s End I turned back and saw God’s Thumb poking up to the north:

I’ve heard a lot about this hike so it was nice to do it on such a beautiful day. I hope the city can improve the muddy parts of the trail.

Here’s my route: